[KeyboardJungle]

are the cheap hydraulic presses worth having around? I dont do any fabrication, but I accidentally bend things from time to time and need to straighten them, like the 1” square tubing on my sprayer boom and the 1” round steel kickstand for my back blade. I might also occasionally need to bend a 1/4” x 4” steel plate to a 90 degree angle to make a bracket. are the little presses worth having around? for the kind of use I mentioned, 6, 12, or 20 ton? Does everything that you need come with them, or would I need additional jigs?

 

[rwmeyer]

Dave, I've got the el cheapo Harbor Freight 20 ton press and it's fine for pressing... pushing a shaft out of a bore. I think it would work for 1" tubing, bit no idea on 1" bar stock. It comes with plates to support what you're pressing, but any metal forming would require jigs/fixtures. I imagine with the right jigs/fixtures AND enough heat, it would be fine for metal forming! Bob

 

[workinonit]

I'm not sure a 20 ton press would bend a 90 with a tight radius in 1/4" plate. It might.

 

[JimR]

I don't have one at the moment but have been considering one of the Harbor Freight presses. I'm not a fabricator so I can't really justify spending a ton of $$ on press and the Harbor Freight units are cheap. But there are a ton of mods out there that people have done to them to make them more useful. So you can start out with a minimal investment and mod as necessary later.

 

[jgayman]

I don't have one at the moment but have been considering one of the Harbor Freight presses. I'm not a fabricator so I can't really justify spending a ton of $$ on press and the Harbor Freight units are cheap. But there are a ton of mods out there that people have done to them to make them more useful. So you can start out with a minimal investment and mod as necessary later.

My brother picked up one of the HF presses last year. They work just fine as intended but there are various YouTube videos that show how to improve them even more. It is amazing how many times you need a cheap simple press to tweak this or that and press things apart. I figure his has already paid for itself in the jobs we were able to do more efficiently and without collateral damage.

Once you assemble a collection of blocks and bearing splitters they become even more useful.

 

[RadarDon]

I've got the 20 ton HF press. Got it many years ago to press bearings. At the time the price of the press was about what I would pay to have a shop do two bearings for me. Though it doesn't get used a lot, it is handy when I need it. I tried to unbend a mashed tubing/plate assembly that got crunched by a tree branch and ended up getting the HF hydraulic pipe bender to do the trick. I just didn't have all the possible accessories to do it and the geometry wasn't right on the press to get it to fit. Both are good units if you take care of them. The newer one is just a different color.

 

[Ritz]

Dave, I've got the el cheapo Harbor Freight 20 ton press and it's fine for pressing... pushing a shaft out of a bore. I think it would work for 1" tubing, bit no idea on 1" bar stock. It comes with plates to support what you're pressing, but any metal forming would require jigs/fixtures. I imagine with the right jigs/fixtures AND enough heat, it would be fine for metal forming! Bob

I have the same press. It has come in handy a few times and was dirt cheap.

 

[Brads Vineyard]

I have a harbor freight press and use it all the time, don't remember the size will have to go look. I have used it to press bearings, stamp letters, bend things, set rivets, all kinds of things.

But, I have a lathe and mill so I can make any tooling I need for the job. I find that I have to make some kind of tooling for just about every job. Sometimes you can find a socket or something laying around that you can use as a tool. But for the most part I am making some kind of tooling.

 

[Ritz]

I have a harbor freight press and use it all the time, don't remember the size will have to go look. I have used it to press bearings, stamp letters, bend things, set rivets, all kinds of things.

But, I have a lathe and mill so I can make any tooling I need for the job. I find that I have to make some kind of tooling for just about every job. Sometimes you can find a socket or something laying around that you can use as a tool. But for the most part I am making some kind of tooling.

A person after my own heart. I've got my mill and my lathe next to the press and often find myself needing to create one-off tools as well. All of them from HF. Not the best gear, but cheap and functional.

Best,

 

[KeyboardJungle]

I have a harbor freight press and use it all the time, don't remember the size will have to go look. I have used it to press bearings, stamp letters, bend things, set rivets, all kinds of things.

But, I have a lathe and mill so I can make any tooling I need for the job. I find that I have to make some kind of tooling for just about every job. Sometimes you can find a socket or something laying around that you can use as a tool. But for the most part I am making some kind of tooling.

yes, this is what I wonder about. without sufficient tooling, it might be like buying a drill without bits... or a tractor without implements.

 

[JROC]

I also have the HF 20 ton press. Bought it about 4 -5 years ago to build AK's with. IDK how well it will do on really heavy stuff, but it presses rivets and AK barrels and pins that tend to have .001"-.002" presses or more on them just fine. It's a little rough around the edges as it's a cheap tool. I cleaned off a bunch of splatter and mig wire barbs and beefed up some of the welds on it.

You're not going to enjoy bending .25" steel with it me thinks. Not saying it will or won't bend it at a 90* angle, (likely depends on how far you have whatever you use to make the bend spread out) but you can convert it to a pneumatic setup, and it will probably work better for you as it's a very slow pumping press when being hand operated.

 

[WH401]

I have the 20-ton press from HF and I initially bought it just to work on old tractors and mower spindles, but it’s come in handy for so many more things. Example, breaking the bead on lawn tractor tires. I had to put a new tire on a JD 21 cart rim and I used the press to run the bead of the tire down. One side of the wheel is very deep and there’s no way I could have done it with outit. Well worth the price.

Rick

 

[KennyP]

I have the HF 20-ton press. Have used it a lot for making bends. Here's what I made:

I have bent 5/8" thick bar stock (after heating first) into 3-point arms with it.

 

[Ritz]

I have the HF 20-ton press. Have used it a lot for making bends. Here's what I made:
View attachment 789960 View attachment 789961

I have bent 5/8" thick bar stock (after heating first) into 3-point arms with it.

Nice. I've also used mine to bend steel tubing with the help of dies that originally came with an exhaust pipe bending machine.

Best,